Some computer systems are configured to perform functions relating to enterprise resources planning (ERP) and are therefore referred to as ERP systems. An ERP system can serve many purposes, such as supply chain management, customer relations management, and analysis and reporting on transactional data.
Some databases are designed with multidimensional data structures. These multidimensional databases are commonly used for data analysis which is usually referred to as online analytical processing (OLAP). Data from the ERP system's relational database can be transported to the OLAP system's multidimensional database via a so called ETL process (Extraction, Transformation and Loading). Queries can be defined and executed on the multidimensional database and return one or more tables as a result. Such tables can be merged into a single table with multiple column and row headers and a data section, which is referred to as result set or cross table.
Usually queries are defined once for a specific use and then stored on the backend system for other users to use. In most cases those predefined queries are the basis for other users' daily work and the work spent on query formulation is hence considered to be an investment. Reusing these queries in multiple scenarios is desirable as the cost of defining the queries can be spread and the users who have become familiar with the queries and the way that these queries present the data do not have alter their way of working.